The All-Star Game finally found the right formula.

If you’re as old as me, you remember the days when Major League Baseball actually had two all-star games. Why? I wasn’t old enough then to know why it was happening, and still couldn’t figure out why the MLB chose to do it that way. In fact, I still don’t know.

But, after 14 years of the game deciding home-field advantage in the World Series, baseball finally figured it out. In the nation’s capital, where everything else seems to be in such chaos, came the perfect all-star week.

Bryce Harper was the first hometown hero, belting his way to the Home Run Derby title Monday night, launching baseballs deep into the July sky. Then, with nothing at stake except a good show, FOX hit a grand slam on the game.

When have you ever seen baseball while announcers talked to the players on the field? Mike Trout bantered with Joe Buck from center field and then Harper did the same the next inning. It was the perfect innovation to show how little the outcome meant by how much fun it could be watching the best players mix it up and mash the ball all over the park.

Of course, Aaron Judge began by taking the Nationals’ Max Scherzer deep to get the scoring started. Then Trout went yard. Eventually, a 2-1 game broke open with ten runs in the last three innings, capped by Alex Bregman and George Springer of the World Champion Astros going back-to-back to break a 5-5 tie in the tenth.

What fun from the perfect introduction of players from both teams, with each starter accompanied onto the field by a youngster from some youth group somewhere! Didn’t matter, as it was another way to turn the All-Star game from legit baseball into a starry showcase for the best players.

And there was a serious subplot, from the moment the telecast came on the air. The Orioles’ Manny Machado, who had been rumored to be on his way to a half-dozen teams, was being traded to the LA Dodgers of the National League. Commentator Big Papi said it best at the end: His man, Magic Johnson, who owns the Dodgers and runs the Lakers, has now scored LeBron and Machado in the last month.

That was magic.  Now it’s back to baseball for real Friday.

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